Greenpeace Starts Legal Challenge to Stop U.K. Shale Wells

Environmental group Greenpeace
started a legal challenge to shale-gas exploration in the U.K.,
encouraging landowners to use trespass laws to block drilling.

Drilling horizontally under peoples land is illegal without
the owner’s permission and property holders can block drilling
by formally declaring their opposition, Greenpeace said.

“If someone drills under your home without permission it
is a trespass,” John Sauven, the group’s executive director,
said in a statement. “This case is about people explicitly
declaring they do not give that permission. This will make it
extremely difficult for companies to move ahead with any
horizontal drilling plans.”

Greenpeace is opposed to drilling techniques that started
an oil and gas production boom in the U.S., claiming they risk
polluting water supplies. Exploiting shale reserves relies on a
combination of drilling horizontal wells and hydraulic
fracturing, the process of using a pressurized mix of water,
sand and chemicals to force fuel out of rocks.

The U.K. said in June the Bowland basin, which stretches
from the east to the northwest, may hold as much as 1,300
trillion cubic feet of gas. An extraction rate of 10 percent,
typical in U.S. fields, will meet the country’s demand for
almost 50 years. The government has encouraged explorers through
lower tax rates as it tries to cut reliance on imports and
reserves decline in the North Sea.